Barometers in Siberia used to be made from willow sticks that registered the pressure by bending in accordance to how much water was in the air. Describing the seasons of Russia, the English poet Giles Fletcher, who worked as special envoy to Russia, wrote in 1589, "The whole country differeth very much from itself, by reason of the year: so that man would marvel to see the great alternation and difference betwixt the Winter and the Summer in Russia."